Prayer: Meditative Prayer

This episode dives into MEDITATIVE prayer, which takes a little more focus, discipline, and time than vocal prayer. Meditative prayer is beautiful for growing our virtues of patience and helping us develop more intimacy with Jesus! You can meditate on all kinds of things, including: scripture, prayers, pictures, nature, or even just a word. By training our bodies to slow down and focus, we can go much deeper into a portion of the Bible or into a truth that God wants to reveal to us.

Since we are physical people, don't skimp on preparing your body to meditate. Remove all distractions, get comfortable, and take some slow breaths before trying to dive into meditation. And remember that we are seeking a deep relationship with Jesus, not just the good feelings that may come from prayer. Feelings come and feelings go, and we'll talk about that more in a couple of episodes!

Some resources to look into for meditation are:

• The Rosary
• Lectio Divina
• Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales
• Ignatian Audio Meditations

Try to take some time this week to meditate! I recommend taking a gospel story that you know well. Read the story a few times and try to picture the elements involved. Then, after asking the Holy Spirit to help you, try to "dive into" the story. Either picturing yourself as a character or "watching" it as a movie. Take the story SLOWLY and linger on any elements that stand out to you. Afterwards, journal about anything that stood out to you or surprised you from your meditation.

Some ideas are:

• Luke 5:1-11 - Jesus calling Peter
• John 11 - Jesus raising Lazarus
• Luke 8:43-48 - The Hemorrhaging Woman
• Mark 4:35-41 - Jesus calms the storm